


A Lot of Guys Call Me Shawna

by Chicklet_Girl



Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-24
Updated: 2010-06-24
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicklet_Girl/pseuds/Chicklet_Girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Todd, high-school sophomore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lot of Guys Call Me Shawna

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Session 4, Round 11 of NCIS Last Fic Writer Standing. The prompt was "Highschool Blues: Flashback to when a member of the team was in high school! Main characters only (Gibbs, Tony, McGee, Ziva, Abby, Ducky, Palmer, Vance, Jenny). Word count may not exceed 2500." I received two votes for Least Favorite and one vote for Most Favorite and made it to Round 12 with a score of -2. (Which I'm taking as a personal victory, since, in a feat of brilliance matched only by the creation of the TV show _My Mother the Car_ , I got the schedule screwed up and forgot to look for the prompt until about 12 hours before the stories were due. SMRT.)

> **Boy in Police Station:** You never told me your name.  
>  **Jeanie:** Oh, uh, it’s Jean. But a lot of guys call me Shawna.  
>  **Boy in Police Station:** Okay. Jean.

 

Kate wakes up and realizes she turned off her alarm and fell back asleep. Crap. She jumps out of bed and puts on her robe, running out into the hallway to see the bathroom door just clicking shut behind John. She sighs and leans against the wall, waiting him out. After ten minutes, the shower’s still going, so not only is she going to have to leave for school with wet hair, she’ll probably have to take a cold shower because John used up all the hot water. She turns and starts banging on the door. “John, hurry up! I have to use that shower, too!”

“C’mon Jeanie,” Aaron says, walking by on his way downstairs. He’s wearing jeans and a Todd Contracting t-shirt, and carrying his kneepads for setting tile. “You have to respect a guy’s morning jack-off time.”

“Ugh, _gross_! And stop calling me Jeanie!” she yells after him. Her brothers have been doing that for _two whole years_ , ever since _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_ came out, and it’s _so annoying_. Behind her, she hears the shower turn off and takes up a station across the hall from the door. When John comes out, she fixes him with her most withering glare and says, “Gee, thanks for being so speedy.”

“Don’t worry, Jeanie, it can’t make you look any worse,” John smirks, heading for his and Aaron’s room. He’s only a year older than she is, but he thinks it makes him so superior. Jerk. She bolts into the bathroom and takes the quickest shower of her life (the water does get a little cold at the end, thanks to her stupid brother), then runs to her room to get dressed.

Ugh, this dumb uniform. Nobody looks good in a plaid skirt and knee socks. At least Mom finally let her start wearing loafers this year instead of saddle shoes. White blouse, cardigan… Kate stands in the middle of her room and pivots, looking for her black headband. She finds it on her desk and shoves her hair back with it just as Mom yells “Kate, your breakfast!” from the bottom of the stairs. Kate grabs her backpack and runs down to the kitchen.

“Not my fault,” she says as she slips into her chair. “John took forever in the shower.”

John kicks her under the table. “Tattletale.” Kate sticks her tongue out at him.

Mom puts a bowl of oatmeal in front of Kate – brown sugar and milk, just the way she likes it – and says, “Caitlin, remember to meet me in the kitchen in the church after school for the fish fry.”

“I’ll be there,” Kate says, plastering a dutiful smile on her face. She always gets stuck boiling the spaghetti noodles, so her face gets all sweaty and her hair frizzes out. And Richard Flanigan, the cutest boy in school, will be there helping set up the tables and chairs, so of course she’ll look awful compared to Angela Mancini, who’s always in charge of setting up desserts and therefore always looks perfect.

Kate really regrets giving up chocolate for Lent this year. She’s surprised she hasn’t gotten a huge zit just in time for Friday. Maybe it’ll pop up during History class.

Aaron comes into the kitchen, putting on his jacket. “Dad in the truck already?” he asks Mom.

“Yes,” she replies, holding out his lunch in a Playmate cooler. “You’d better hurry.”

Aaron takes the cooler in the hand that isn’t carrying his kneepads. “Thanks, Mom.” He bends over to kiss her cheek. “See you tonight.” Most of Aaron’s friends are in Florida or Mexico this week for Spring Break, but he came home from Notre Dame to work with Dad and make some money. He backs out of the door so he can say, “Bye John – and Jeanie,” all smarmy, like Eddie Haskell. She _has_ to come up with a way to torture him before he goes back to school. It’s imperative.

“Be careful, Aaron,” Mom says, like Dad and Aaron are going to be roofing instead of setting tile. She looks at the clock and rubs her St. Michael medal between her finger and thumb. Seamus must be working today, which means Mom is going to be hyper, trying to distract herself from worrying about Seamus being out on patrol. The day Seamus had announced he was going to the police academy had been really loud. Mom alternated between crying and saying how proud great-grandpa Halloran would be to see one of his great-grandsons in a police uniform.

Mom seems to shake herself awake. “Kids, finish your breakfast or you’ll be late!” Kate finishes the last of her oatmeal and puts the bowl in the sink. She races John to the bathroom, but they end up brushing their teeth at the same time, hunched over opposite sides of the sink. She lets him go down the stairs ahead of her, because she knows he’s just going to run as soon as he gets outside, and leave her to walk on her own. Not that she really minds it. The walk is nice and quiet after the monkey-house atmosphere at home.

She goes to the kitchen and takes her brown-bag lunch from Mom. “I’ll see you after school, Mom.”

“Bye, Kate.” Mom kisses her on the cheek. “Get ready to boil that spaghetti!”

“You bet.” Kate walks out the door and heads down Sycamore. Someday she’s going to have her own place and be the only person using the shower in the morning, and she’ll wear interesting clothes to work that make her look good, and she’ll never, ever, have to look awful in front of the cutest guy around.

**Author's Note:**

> As you may have guessed from the story (if you didn't know it off the top of your head), the opening quotation is from _Ferris Bueller's Day Off_ , screenplay by John Hughes.


End file.
